I suppose it depends on how your schedule works out, but I personally wouldn't study on campus. The law library to me seemed to be a pressure cooker of unnecessary stress, competition, and distractions.

I studied at my apartment in my 1L year, did just fine, and felt I had a far lower stress burden than most of my classmates.

I thought I'd give a little info on the professors I know, to ease the 0L nerves here.

Taylor - Puts everyone's name on notecards, and rotates calling on you for cases. That's the only calling he does, never cold called people otherwise when I had him for contracts. Expects you to be prepared and asks tough questions, but is pretty soft if you aren't prepared. If we didn't know an answer, he just asked for a volunteer to help with it. Exams are absolutely brutal; work fast, he's not looking for deep analysis, just issue spotting.

Palacios - Nice lady. Not a very interesting professor. No real "cold calling"; she does review questions before each class, and the people she chooses to answer the review questions are the people who get called on for cases that day. If I recall, getting called on consisted of reciting the facts, and her asking how you felt about the outcome. Pretty easy. Her exam was half MC and half essay. At least half the MC was the review questions she did before class. (Literally, they were the exact same questions and answer choices.) It's an easy final, so the curve will be very tight.

Gaba - I had him for Environmental Law, not Property. He's a funny hippie that looks like he smoked too much pot. Kind of boring, but he's really smart. His exam was easy, and he didn't call on anyone in my upper level class. I imagine he'll call on people in the 1L classes. Pretty typical essay exams.

Bridge - Never had him, but he's an SMU legend. I've been told he's a pretty classical Socratic hardass: cold calls all over the room, makes you stand and recite, and gives very difficult exams. Don't envy y'all in section 2, I've managed to skate by without ever having him.

Dorsaneo - Entertaining, and probably certifiably crazy. I had him for his upper level Texas Civil Procedure courses. He "cold called" for practice questions and some cases, but didn't care if you didn't know answers. I've been told he calls on people more in 1L Civil Procedure. Both his 2L exams I took were pure MC and open everything (book, notes, old outlines, etc.). Easy exams, tons of war stories. He's racist, sexist, and completely politically incorrect. Loved him.

Martinez - Likes to facilitate long classroom discussions. Sometimes he'll spend an entire day letting you argue over something pointless, then he'll spend the next day racing through lecture to catch up. His lectures follow exactly "The Martinez Bible," which I'll be uploading with other outlines soon. Literally, the questions he asks and answers are straight from it. Just print a copy of it out and use it when you're called on. Exams will be essay and can be done purely with canned answers, so make them in advance.

TheJanitor6203 wrote:Any past/current students have any incite on Robinson for Property?

Keith Robinson? He's super nice and a good professor, from what I hear. You should not be disappointed in him.

It says his name is Walter Robinson on my.SMU, but maybe he goes by Keith? Idk.

Right. It's Walter, but he goes by Keith. He's a great professor. One of my favorites. He lays out the material in a very accessible and logical manner, which is nice to have in the first year. However, beware: the final exam is EXTREMELY difficult. He designs it so that the average grade is about 50%. This means you could probably get an 'A' with a score of 70% or so, but walking out of an exam where you only knew 6 or 7 out of 10 questions is very unnerving.

For a supplement, I've always liked the Gilbert outlines (I prefer the outline format to walls of text).

I wouldn't spend any money on supplements at this point. There's a very good chance you won't have time to look at them. Wait until later in the semester and see if you need them.

If you need them, the most recent copies of most supplements (e.g. E&Es, Nutshell) are available in the SMU law library. They don't allow students take them out of the library, so they are almost always available for your use (for free).

YYZ wrote:I wouldn't spend any money on supplements at this point. There's a very good chance you won't have time to look at them. Wait until later in the semester and see if you need them.

If you need them, the most recent copies of most supplements (e.g. E&Es, Nutshell) are available in the SMU law library. They don't allow students take them out of the library, so they are almost always available for your use (for free).

It looks like SMU purchased the Study Aids Subscription from Westlaw again this year, so all the supplements you'll need will be available for "free" (the electronic versions anyway).

I looked back on a lot of the professors discussed in this thread (and other SMU threads), and I have to say that, for all my bitching about SMU, they have a large amount of really, really good professors.

I wouldn't buy any supplements, recommended books, or statutory books until after your first day of class. Just buy the casebook. All the statutes (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Uniform Commercial Code, Restatement of Torts, etc.) are available free online. Unless there's a good reason to need them, there's no reason to pay an extra $50-75/class on them.

Some professors will only allow you to bring the statutory supplement into the exam. I'll spend the $50 for that, but the rest I'll just get what I need on WestLaw.

Hey guys, this might be a stupid question, but do you keep the same section and profs for the whole year? I noticed that they estimated $2,000 for books for the year so I'm just wondering if that means you keep the same books for the year, or do you buy additional books for the spring semester? I spent about $1,200 on books for this fall so I'm just wondering if I should budget about the same for the spring as well. Thanks.

emmy463 wrote:Hey guys, this might be a stupid question, but do you keep the same section and profs for the whole year? I noticed that they estimated $2,000 for books for the year so I'm just wondering if that means you keep the same books for the year, or do you buy additional books for the spring semester? I spent about $1,200 on books for this fall so I'm just wondering if I should budget about the same for the spring as well. Thanks.

The only class that changes for the spring is Con Law (which replaces Crim Law). Other than the books for con law, you will need a few new books and a new binder for legal writing. The books you use for the other classes will be the same for the spring. (As will be your section and professors).

Hey y'all. Recent SMU grad (c/o 2014) here. I'm happy to answer any questions y'all may have about law school in general or SMU or the Dallas area, but I have a bit of a wanted ad to post.

I'll be working at a law firm in Plano starting in the next few weeks, and I'm needing to hire a dog walker to come let my sweet (hyper) dog out around midday three times a week (he goes to daycare the other two days). I live RIGHT across the street from campus and it would be easy money for a 1L especially, since it will be right around the time you'll be getting out of class. I was thinking that I would pay $50 a week for three 15 minute walks? So, I thought I'd offer TLS peeps first dibs. Shoot me a PM if you're interested at all! Thanks!!!

TheJanitor6203 wrote:Any past/current students have any incite on Robinson for Property?

Had him for Property his first year teaching at SMU. LOVED him. I also took him for IP, just because I wanted to take another class with him (plus he's an IP guy, so you could tell during Prop that he preferred the IP stuff, and his teaching in IP was even better).